World: Kabul Is Not Saigon

Helicopter gunships blaze away at elusive guerrillas. The army of a
superpower tries to shore up an allied regime against an insurgency,
but the puppet government and its military forces only grow weaker. The
rebellion spreads. What was intended as a swift surgical operation
begins to resemble a futile, possibly humiliating war without end.

Ever since six Soviet divisions barreled into Afghanistanand
especially since the eruption of indigenous protests against the
invasionWestern analysts have been tantalized by possible parallels
to the U.S. involvement in Viet Nam. Says Viet Nam War Chronicler David
Halberstam: "The So viets to learning the big Viet Nam...